The 2001 census revealed that about 70% of the people in Britain consider themselves to be in some sense Christian. More realistically, about four million people will be in church on any given Sunday, and six million attend church regularly, at least once a month.

UK political party memberships run into the hundreds of thousands. Church memberships are in the millions. The UK Christian Handbook lists several thousand non-church Christian organisations. Of course, no political party could simply acquire the support of Christians and churches, and they would be foolish to try. But on any local issue, politicians would be wise to talk to churches early on if they want to make the most of local activism.

Christians are often caricatured as divided, torn into many denominations with different beliefs. In fact Christians of all denominations share a common world view. In most parts of the UK churches of different denominations work together, often through the Churches Together network. The Christian Worldview is a strong one — it has survived countless attempts at extermination in many countries over two millennia. Although no Christian would claim to live out their beliefs completely consistently, the Christian worldview is unconditionally dedicated to improving the state of others — enemies as well as friends. At times Christians have done things which run completely contrary to the teaching of Jesus Christ — but churches can always be called upon to stand up for those who cannot stand up for themselves. When facing difficult and unpopular issues such as asylum seekers, people trafficking and third world debt, Christians can be counted upon when few others groups can.

Christians in the UK have a track record of political involvement. Of course, one of the standard arguments against Christianity is 'religion causes wars'. Unfortunately for the argument, this just doesn't stand up to scrutiny (a rather better case can be made for the similarly sweeping statement 'politicians cause wars'). Christians led the campaign to abolish slavery, were at the forefront of the labour laws, and have a long history of provision for the homeless. More recently, churches have established key relief agencies such as TEARFund and Christian Aid, and led the Jubilee 2000 campaign to abolish Third World debt.